Mario & Ludwig? More sides to a Coin
by TedizStalker
Summary: Ludwig asks, AND teams up with Mario to find who kidnapped Bowser Jr., Wario and Waluigi want to do something NICE for a change, while Luigi goes undercover as Mr. L to travel safely in new territory, though not on his own... Green Thunder you say?
1. Ch 1 Blame, Scare and Interrogate

Suppose it was another, lazy ordinary day for the Mario Brothers. Princess Peach hasn't been kidnapped yet, Wario and Waluigi have fussed over about treasure hunting and Luigi was on holiday.  
>For once, Mario could relax, at home alone. He flicked on the TV as he got comfortable on his red chair.<br>What he saw on the news was rather worrying. In the next second, he ran out of his house and made a mad dash to the castle.

And not a moment too late did he arrive.

-0-

It would have been a quiet morning if Bowser's castle hadn't bore an uproar; not from Bowser himself, but from his children, the Koopalings.  
>"This is bad, this is bad..." Larry paced back and forth, worried since he was the second youngest, "King Dad's gonna freak when he finds out Junior's missing!"<br>"So that means no tellin', aight?" Roy growled, thumping his older yet noisy brother Morton Jr. on the head, "You 'ave the gall to be a klutz in the jaw sometimes."  
>While the siblings bickered and panicked, Ludwig von Koopa kept out of the mingling sounds, pondering to himself. 'Either we all face dad's tantrums or we act... well, we certainly won't take action at this pace. Who would kidnap Bowser Junior...? I think I got my first dibs on the Mushroom Kingdom...' with a growl instead of a goodbye, the mature koopaling turned and left the castle, disembarking for Toad Town.<p>

After passing through town with very little difficulty, Ludwig marched his way into the castle grounds, fuming. He was wary that Mario or Luigi would spring out and stop him anytime soon. Much to his surprise though, he made it to the meeting room where everyone was at.  
>Everyone, except Mario and Luigi.<br>"I really hate to be so rude and interrupt whatever it is you're discussing about, but do you, Princess, or any of your mushroom people know what happened to Bowser Jr.?" he asked as calmly as he could manage.

Peach was still perched next to the white board where the news were showing from a projector, which Toadsworth recently turned off since their little interruption arrived. A theory with Bowser and his tricks; if one was nearby, the rest weren't far behind.  
>"No, I haven't." she answered honestly, shaking her head slowly. Her adviser had to do the wrong thing and accuse the koopaling of a suppose ambush.<br>"Careful, Princess, the others might be lying in wait just to kidnap you again!"

Ludwig, obviously, wasn't deaf as he took that as an insult. "I should accuse you of the same thing! True, King Dad makes kidnapping you a bad habit, but what rights do you have to kidnap his son in return? Is he easier to pick on in order to ex—" he didn't get to finish since a pair of brown shoes landed square on his head, messing up his deep azure blue hair somewhat.

Mario sprang off his makeshift foot hold and landed next to Peach. "It's a-me, Mario," he greeted with a bow, before taking his stance, "And what right do you 'ave to accuse her of abducting the youngest sibling?"

Ludwig rubbed his head with a growl. Just seeing the plumber in red was all he needed. "Either anyone or everyone tells me where Junior is, or I'll burn this palace to the ground in my dad's place!" he hollered, already spitting a fireball to a curtain which caught on fire. The koopaling was clearly enraged to be reasoned with.

-0-

Deep in the Boo Woods, two suspicious plumbers and a dumbfounded Bowser Jr. finally realised that they were lost. "I'm hungry!" the koopaling snapped after hearing his stomach growl again.

"You're not the boss of us, kid." A tall, lanky man in purple with black overalls looked over his shoulder. His cap had an upside down 'L', "Just a little more and we can stop for lunch." The short round man in yellow with purple overalls added. His cap bore a 'W', as opposed to Mario's 'M' cap.

"You mean brunch?" Junior growled, glaring at the ground as they pressed on, "Where are we going? Why am I coming along with you crooks anyway?"

"You're dad's an even bigger crook than me." Wario paused and turned to face Bowser Jr., "And we're keeping you until he pays up our ra—"  
>"Bro, found a spot for us and the brat to catch our breath." Waluigi called, sitting down on a log.<p>

Junior sighed. Humans... they were so annoying. Especially Wario who always smelt funny and used his weight to his advantage, as if they were muscles; and Waluigi was so suspicious looking, even having a keen interest in explosive things, especially Bob-ombs. In a sense, they were no better than the Mario Brothers, but they took the cake for being creepy in the first place. "Why don't you go work on a broken warp pipe?" The grumpy koopaling made an effort to talk back once more before they decide to do something.

"For that, no food." Wario snickered, "Doubt that you would eat it anyway."

And so the three sat, Junior looking at the two snacking when he heard a whisper. He turned to the bushes and hopped off the log he was on, fortunately while Wario and Waluigi weren't paying attention.

A minute more or so and two watery beings rose up from the bushes. Waluigi was the first to see this and freak. "W-W-W-Wario...?" he stuttered, pointing at them.  
>Up and away they went. "Kidnap the kid you say? Make a ransom so Bowser pays up the loot he stole from the Toads you say! Do something <em>nice <em>for a change you say?" Waluigi ranted.

"Just shuddap and run!" Wario hollered back, the two making a break from their watery clones, their red eyes glaring after them.

-0-

"So, how many blood plums do we have? I need enough to head on back to King Turtle's home." Edward asked, who looked a lot like Ludwig had he got green scales on his face instead of red. His deep azure blue hair was a bit messier, the longer strands tied into a long but narrow ponytail like Lemmy's.

"Waffles suggest you need more. It's a long journey, like the sun travels across the sky daily." Wawful spoke up. Being Fawful's doppelganger, he was a red kidney bean instead of a lima bean. Same glasses... but the IQ of a Yoshi. When he wasn't in the right of mind, the only thing on it was food.

"It would seem like that... if you still want us to travel with you a little more..." the timid voice spoke up that belonged to Mementio, the alter ego of Dementio. He wasn't keen on using magic but would if required, "Unless we snack wisely. If not, having a few extra plums wouldn't hurt..."

Edward perked up, hearing a bush bristle. He turned slowly, straining his hearing. Then, without warning, he pounced at the bush. A startled yelp followed as a man in green with dark blue overalls darted out of the way, but into the open. Before Luigi's thoughts could catch up, Edward got a hold of him.

"Well I'd be... you're the infamous Luigi... am I right? Goody two-shoes aren't welcome, so why the hell are you trespassing...?" Edward growled. The poor younger brother couldn't even answer.

-**0**-

I only know the Bean Bean Kingdom and Mushrom Kingdom (Partners in Time) locations, so if I make up a location and name, its obviously to keep a story going. Who knows, it could be set in another universe. .3.  
>OC doppelgangers... unoriginal I know, but what's life without a bit of spice.<p>

Mario and Co. Belong to Nintendo.

I will even not make claims on the unfamiliar characters because they're really just recycled. |D ;;  
>Oh yeeeeeah; Edward's name is pronounced 'Ed-Vard' by the way. :3<p> 


	2. Ch 2 Poison Smog & Green Thunder Clouds

The brawl in Peach's Castle didn't last long, with Peach suppressing Ludwig's fire breath and Mario dodging punches that were more agile than Bowser. A few thumps on the head gave the koopaling an even bigger headache, causing him to pass out from the pressure of it all. "What are we going to do with this foul turtle?" Toadsworth muttered.

Of course, being much younger than his dad, it didn't take long at all for him to come around. "Whoa, w-wait! Sorry about that! I'm just looking for Junior because he vanished only a few hours before sunrise!" he managed to get our before sitting down again, holding his head, "Ow... for a rusty plumber, you're certainly not famous for no reason..."

"So if you're not here to kidnap-a Princess for Bowser, what is it you're asking?" Mario walked up to the koopaling, just pondering who would kidnap that little brat anyway.

"If there are other crazy plumbers out there, then obviously I can't go searching on my own." Ludwig growled, carefully chewing on his lower lip, "And I know I'm going against 'I just _love _to be mean' policy and possibly get my shell skinned by king dad personally for asking, but... I might need your help on this, Mario..." for once, his tone was sombre and sincere, as if begging for help in some subtle way. Even Toadsworth couldn't doubt him.

"Right lads... if you're going with Mario, discuss who's really in charge, and pack up supplies for your journey. If Bowser gets suspicious, we'll try and hold him off as long as we can. But no promises." The grey moustached toad advised, "Oh, and you might need this." As usual, he gave Mario the suitcase to store their things in.

-0-

Mario was humming to himself while Ludwig trailed behind, claws plugged into the small ear holes easily camouflaged by his hair. "For pity sake, Mario, stop humming!"

"We discussed who was in charge," Mario rolled his eyes back, talking in a sing-song tone. He knew well he was annoying Ludwig, but couldn't help but do it on purpose now, "And unless you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it."

"Mama-Mia..." Ludwig cursed darkly, lowering his head and glaring at the pebbles they were treading on. Pebbles soon became bark and leaf litter, and that soon became rocks and moss. The koopaling found interest staring at the ground, but was missing out on the true scenery. "Where are we going?" he perked up and looked up further, seeing a tall mountain of ice. "Joker's End? Isn't that in the BeanBean Kingdom? Wouldn't we have to go through the gate first?"

"I feel a little bit cunning..." the red plumber chuckled, continuing on his path with Ludwig watching the ground again. Suddenly, a rock was flung at Ludwig, hitting him hard on his shell and causing the koopaling to lose his balance, crashing hard on his chest.

He coughed some, "What the shell?" He turned to the direction the rock came from, then opened his mouth to spit more fire. Instead, he wounded up coughing and choking, spitting out black smog instead. "Nice bullseye you got..." he just as quickly dropped his anger. Without fire, the two were at a slight disadvantage.

"Whew, that smog smells. Could have some advantages later on..." Mario commented, noting that the smog itself could potentially poison an enemy. Still, it wasn't as bad as how Wario would smell.

"Can it, lasagne breath!" Ludwig snarled. Any other koopaling would be angry too if someone temporally put their fire out, especially Roy.  
>As for a human, if they had a rock thrown right at the very same spot... they'd be dead. It seemed that the rock was aimed at Mario, yet Ludwig happened to be in the way. That alone got him to think twice.<p>

-0-

"You have days to go on and on stuttering. I don't." Edward was still sitting on Luigi's case of trespassing, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm a-a-a l-little l-lost." He finally managed to get it out. It was until now that Luigi noticed something else that picked Edward's appearance apart from Ludwig; his pointed fang... well, wasn't pointed. It was blunt, like a buck tooth. "What happened to your fang?"

"Why do you ask? I just broke it on a cookie when I was young. Nothing important. You sound as though you know someone who's identical to me... after all, you, along with the red 'stache come from the Mushroom Kingdom. Seriously, you need a villain disguise that even the shroobs wouldn't know about."

"S-Shroobs?" Luigi stuttered again, itching to chew on his nails.

"You could say they're like the 'Toads' of this area. They fear Turtle and the family even though he's totally harmless. I just happen to be the eldest son." Edward came clean on his part too, while Wawful and Mementio were making more waffles for the kidney bean's sake.

Luigi finally put two and two together, "So... you're Waludwig?"

"Please, just call me Edward, dude." The now friendly koopaling patted the man's back, "Edward von Koopa, the tech maestro. Now at your service. Are you sure you don't have a disguise?"

"N-No I don't... w-wait a moment." Luigi made a mad dash for the bushes he was hiding in before, quickly getting changed. Even Mementio and Wawful perked up. Soon, Luigi leapt back out in new attire. "I don't remember well, but you" he pointed at Mementio, "remind me of the magician who warped my brain and gave me this outfit. I gotta admit, it's pretty cool."  
>And who could disagree? The 'L' on his cap was facing backwards, the white that highlighted it before now black. The cover for his eyes easily eluded others from recognising him, and he swapped his overalls and green shirt for black pants, black skivvy, a green bandanna around his neck, a belt around the waist, grey gloves and darker grey shoes. "Uh... During the time, I called myself 'Mr. L', and everyone thought I was a different, sinister person. If Bowser could fall for it, so would the shroobs."<p>

"I like that. So... what else do you remember of Mr. L?" Edward smiled. For some reason he liked the colour green.

"Uhm..." Luigi straitened up as he raked his memory, "I think it goes something like... 'The Green Thunder...' wait... 'The Green Thunder! Strikes like lightning!' and then this follows..." he did a few spins and pulled off the pose, "Mr. L!"

"Hold it right there! Green Thunder you say? Can I show you something?" Edward asked, stepping back.

"Still raking my brain. Most of the memory was robbed from Dimentio... but sure."

The koopaling smiled, then took a deep breath and let out a billowing green cloud. As it rose, it began crackling with electricity. "I'd get out of the way if I was you..." Edward warned, but Luigi was simply stunned. He was amazed. For a doppelganger, Edward, by far was truly opposite to Ludwig. The crackling grew louder, and a second longer a green bolt struck down, hitting the ground next to Luigi which snapped him out of it.  
>"I told you to move... you were so lucky." Edward grumbled, "But do you like it regardless?"<p>

"That was cool... I don't know this area well. Of course I'll let you come along!" Luigi hollered happily, clenching his fists. In no time, he would have no trouble acting like a villain. If Mario ever bothered to come look for him, then Mama-Mia, he couldn't wait to show off.

"Hold on, I want to go home. Since you're in my territory, I lead. You can only lead in battles, punk." Luigi should have known there was a slight catch. "You wonder why I know a lot about the Mushroom Kingdom and their residents, yet hadn't a clue about you as Mr. L? Well... that's my secret."

-**0**-

Another chapter done on my own. I might take down and re-do my Zelda one. Not happy about it.  
>All rights in this story belong to Nintendo so far.<p> 


End file.
